Climate and Environment

Young people protest for gender equality and women's rights in Nepa (file)
UN Women/Uma Bista

A youthful 75: New generation carries the torch for UN values

12 September 2020
Global

75 years on from the founding of the UN, young people are being enlisted to share their visions of a better planet, and help decide the next chapter of the Organization. 

The La Mojana region of Colombia is highly vulnerable to climate-change induced floods and droughts. A UN project helps build resilience to these impacts, which also strengthens communities from other shocks such as the COVID-19 pandemic.
UNDP Colombia/Mauricio Enriquez O.

Science, solidarity and solutions needed against climate change: Guterres 

9 September 2020
Global

Concentrations of greenhouse gases in the Earth’s atmosphere are at record levels, and emissions that saw a temporary decline due to the pandemic are heading towards pre-COVID levels, while global temperatures continue to hit new highs, according to a major new UN report.

In India, a woman demonstrates how to use a solar dish for cooking.
UNDP India

India urged to lead global push for clean energy, climate action

28 August 2020
Global

India has a crucial role to play in promoting clean energy and climate action as the world looks to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said on Friday. 

High school girls from Long Island, New York, join other youth climate activists in a demonstration calling for global action to combat climate change. (20 September 2019)
© UNICEF David Berkwitz

UN praises resilience and vision of younger generation, marking International Youth Day  

12 August 2020
Global

Commemorating International Youth Day, top UN officials have called on leaders around the world to “do everything possible” to enable young people to reach their fullest potential.

Hundreds of wildfires have broken out in Siberia, some of which can be seen in this image captured from space on 28 July 2019.
ESA

Dramatic Arctic fires and sea ice melt, show need for urgent climate action

24 July 2020

“Exceptional and prolonged” temperatures in Siberia, have left parts of the Arctic warmer than sub-tropical Florida, and fuelled “devastating” wildfires for a second consecutive year, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on Friday, while warning also of rapidly decreasing sea ice along the Russian polar coast.

A woman and children use new handwashing facilities installed by UNICEF in Embratel, an informal urban settlement in Boa Vista, in northern Brazil.
© UNICEF/Yareidy Perdomo

World off track in meeting 2030 Agenda, UN deputy chief warns, calls for solidarity in COVID-19 recovery

16 July 2020

The world was off track in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030, even before the COVID-19 crisis erupted, but can get back on course by increasing investment in public services, showing solidarity on financing, and “reshaping” how people work, learn, live and consume.

Aerial view of melting glaciers on King George Island, Antarctica. This latest report of an Arctic temperature more typical of the Tropics comes a few months after the Argentine research base, Esperanza, on the northern tip of the Antarctic peninsula, set a new record temperature.
UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe

Extreme weather ‘record’ likely in Arctic Circle, says UN weather agency WMO

23 June 2020

Reports that temperatures in a Russian town in the Arctic Circle likely reached a record 38C (100.4F), last weekend, have been approved by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) pending final verification, it said on Tuesday.

Women in Madagascar cultivate vegetables on land using a micro irrigation system, where the World Food Programme (WFP) is providing income generating opportunities to small-holder farmer organizations.
WFP/Giulio D'Adamo

Solidarity is the world’s ‘best line of defence’: UN General Assembly president

8 June 2020
Global

Back in September, the world committed to a landmark political declaration on universal health coverage. Now, in the throes of the COVID-19 crisis, the President of the UN General Assembly has reiterated the importance of investing in health as “an investment in human capital, social and economic development and the empowerment of all people”.

A school of Trevally fish in the Solomon Islands.
Coral Reef Image Bank/Tracey Jen

World Oceans Day: Don’t be colour blind, help blue oceans keep the planet green

8 June 2020
Global

The COVID-19 pandemic is a “sharp reminder” of how we are all intimately connected to each other and to nature, the UN chief said on Monday, World Oceans Day.

A man in Kenya shops for produce as the coronavirus pandemic brings into focus the interdependence between humanity and biodiversity.
World Bank / Sambrian Mbaabu

World Environment Day: COVID-19 crisis demands fundamental rethink

5 June 2020
Global

The COVID-19 health crisis should be seen as a clarion call to “fundamentally rethink our relationship” with natural ecosystems and shrinking biodiversity, the UN cultural agency chief said on Friday, World Environment Day.